Monday, July 26, 2010

Number 101

I met my goal of posting 100 times in a year with my post yesterday. When I first started blogging, I kept it pretty low key. I was knew to blogging, both to reading blogs and definately to writing blogs. I didn't know what to expect, so I wanted to see if this was something I could do on a consistent basis. I don't blog everyday, and never planned to, ususally about 1 day in three is good for me. But there have been times when it's been difficult to think of something to blog about. At those times I probably let five or six days go by before adding anything. But in trying to add something of value for other writers, I want to be as consistent as possible, and provide information of value.

5 comments:

Congrats! Blogging isn't always easy and takes a lot of time. I never run out of post ideas because I have the thesaurus entries, but each one requires significant researching to complete.

When I'm looking at writing related posts tho, I try to do something that hasn't been done to death, or do it in a new way. I look at concepts I'm struggling with or angles of writing that don't get a lot of air time and post about it.

Think of your audience and what they need most. Writers like strong information delivered in bite sized pieces, posts that will show them ways to save time and posts that will inspire them or offer emotional support. Links to strong resources, helpful websites or great writer-centric content are always appreciated too I find.

I think a big part of it is keeping the posts reasonably short and to-the-point. I see a lot of blogs that will have a twelve-page rambling and then not post anything for a couple months, and my thinking is just break that massive post up into smaller pieces. Can't afford to read a single blog post for a whole hour. =P

grats for your 100 posts. Blogging is such hard work. Coming up with ideas for new posts is also hard work. I always have to be thinking about it. I jot down brief ideas during the week and expand them on the weekend ready to post.

I think you need to do what you're comfortable with. Short posts are easier for the reader, but not all writers can say what they need to in a short[er] post. Of course, they can always break up the topic they're writing about.

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Melissa's Myths for Mondays

Starting on Monday 8/23/10 I am going to be posting some of the things I believed about writing and the publishing industry before I ventured into this wonderful journey, and some of the things I’ve learned since. Many of you may never have held the mythologies that I have or fallen into the pit falls that I’ve experienced, but if you have I hope these entries will demonstrate that you’re not alone. For those of you who are newer on your journey than I am, I hope that you can learn from me, and my wonderful followers. That’s what the writing community is all about.

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Why I Write

I've always had a very strained relationship with Grammar and Punctuation (and don't even talk to me about Spelling, he and I are from different planets.) Early in my life, I checked writing or anything that had to do with writing off my list of "career options". How could I dream of being a writer, journalist, English teacher, if I couldn't tell a gerund from a dangling modifier. But yet, I always had these stories.

Stories inundated my brain from the time I woke up, until well after I should have been asleep. They caused me to stare into space during most of my classes and led my teachers to believe that I was developmentally disabled. Characters bantered back and forth in my head and frequently slipped out into open conversations with me, making me appear to be delusional. Fortunately, I was neither.

Finally after years of trying to fit myself into an unsuitable career, I decided to release my stories by writing them down. It was amazing. Characters who were stunted, ever trapped in chrysalis could unfurl their wings and take flight. Light, color, and texture was blasted onto venues that had been hidden in shadow. Plots could unfold and be resolved, instead of looping back to the beginning over and over again.

So now I know that I am a writer. I'm attempting to make the aquaintance of Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling, and I'm making some progress in our relationship. But I've also come to realize that writing is about a lot more than dangling modifiers. It's about crafting a story. But for me writing is not enough. I want to be published as well. So that's my goal, and I'll keep at it no matter how long it takes.